Winter Brook - Final

I went ahead and finished this..... Maybe.
There is always that point in raw edge applique, whether its fused or stitched, when you ask yourself if simple and plain is more effective than thread painted or stitched.

I went ahead and stitched the trees branches in place. They were only glued and under netting so they needed to be anchored. I could have outlined it and made the stitching invisible but I went ahead and echo stitched the edge of each piece.

I also stitched around all the water. These pieces were fused but I'm always leery of leaving them unprotected from little fingers (and big fingers), that just want to see how it was attached. The stitching also give some definition to the different sections.

Now I'm wrestling with 3 questions.
- How much tulle, if any, do I cut away.
- Would adding thread stitching to the water make that region too distracting.
And third......
- A member of our guild is giving a beading tutorial this month...I could use beads for snowflakes?

So I went ahead and bound the piece. Any additional work can be added later.
So is it finished?
For all practically purposes,.... yes!

February 8 - Finished this week with the addition of beading, both on the darker water and with 10 snowflakes. I tried just the glass beads alone and the were two small. Each of these flakes takes 48 beads and finishes at about "dime" size.